How much did you know about Mischa Auer (below, second from left) and Leonid Kinskey (above)? Both were Russian natives, born two years apart in St. Petersburg. Both were fascinating characters in their own rights, and had plenty of international experience in addition to long Hollywood tenures. Their parts were definitely supporting roles, usually brief. […]
The two character actors who specialized in portraying Russians during Hollywood’s golden age were Mischa Auer and Leonid Kinskey. Actually, they were both natives of St. Petersburg, Russia, born two years apart — Kinskey was the younger of the pair. (He died at 95 in 1998; Auer expired younger, at the age of 61 in […]
She made her start in serials, but progressed to features and had a lasting career. It says something that she is now described as singer-actress rather than the reverse. Born in Iowa in 1920 and raised in Texas, Constance Moore did indeed originally aspire to be a singer. In fact, her first show biz jobs […]
It is often cited as ushering in an era of screwball comedies. It was a runaway hit when it came out in 1936, and financially stabilized Universal Pictures, then under a new management wishing to broaden the studio’s remarkably successful propensity to horror films. Four of its principals were Oscar nominated in acting categories. This, […]
She lit up the screen in the early 1950s. When the former Camille Javal exploded onto cinema screens in the 1950s, she put SEX squarely on the movie map. First, a personal anecdote. Around 1957, Frank was a teenager trapped in a less-than-exciting summer job as a “dryer” in an assembly-line car wash in Yonkers, […]
How much did you know? We suspect you knew all about Robert Mitchum’s arrest for marijuana possession in September 1948, and his subsequent stint in the L.A. County jail. Here he is (above) sweeping up. Mitchum feared that his career and marriage were severely jeopardized by the arrest. They weren’t, thanks heavens. Those were the […]
(Young Robert Mitchum) He was such a big star for such a long time that it’s hard to realize there’s much you don’t know about this superb, versatile actor. (Seasoned Robert Mitchum; with Gloria Grahame) Yes, we have quizzed you before about this bona fide Hollywood titan — who died in 1997 at age 79. […]
He made many movies and tv appearances — at least 150 credits overall –and eventually won a best actor Academy Award for playing a Southern sheriff saddled with a black detective (Sidney Poitier) he comes to respect in 1967’s In the Heat of the Night. Yet Rod Steiger was sufficiently self aware to realize that […]
Interesting question. Tamara Toumanova only made a few movies — in fact, less than 10 in all — but made her mark. In fact, a pretty good movie could be made of the tempestuous circumstances of her early life. She was reportedly born on a train as her mother fled the Russian Revolution in search […]
Our next question should be: how can you forget Dirk Bogarde? Yes, he was often touted as the British Rock Hudson. Both were homosexual men playing all manner of heart throbs in all manner of titles, from heavy dramatic films to comedies. And both, of course, were handsome movie actors. The similarities, however, stop about […]